Is a prenup unromantic, or the smartest thing you could ever do?

Prenuptial agreements may get a bad rap in the good times, but they can soothe the complexities and hard feelings that come during a divorce.

Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie confirmed they will divorce, after more than two years of marriage and 11 years together. They have six children and are worth more than $400 million as a pair, according to various news outlets.

Whether they have a prenup is up for debate. A 2014 RadarOnline article, which was published a month after the two were married, says Jolie and Pitt have a prenuptial agreement that claims each will leave the marriage with what they originally entered, and that any money made during their marriage will go in a trust to be split among their children. Other sources, such as Hollywood Life are now saying they do not. MarketWatch called Jolie’s lawyer, but was sent to a pre-recorded message about not accepting unsolicited calls from the media.

If the rumors are true that Brangelina does not have a prenup, they’re not alone. Research from legal site Avvo shows only 2% of married Americans have a prenup, which dictates who gets what if a couple divorces. Some boldfaced couples who forewent the prenup include Russell Brand and Katy Perry, Kelsey and Camille Grammer, and Paul McCartney and Heather Mills.

“People are more inclined to worry about the stigma of what a prenup might mean,” said Nika Kabiri, director of strategic insights at Avvo. “They prioritize that over their financial well-being.”

Nobody walks down the aisle thinking they’ll get a divorce, but creating a document that states what might happen in the event of one can do good for the two getting married, she said.

“You want to prepare for the worst-case scenario,” Kabiri said. “You want to make sure they’re okay as much as if you’re okay.”

Not everyone sees the prenup that way. They can stir up feelings of distrust or shut a spouse out of an estate. Comedienne Roseanne Barr reportedly fired her lawyer for suggesting a prenup when she was marrying her then-husband and fellow actor Tom Arnold. They divorced four years later, and media reports say he walked away with a $50 million settlement.

Wendy O’Connor, a Los Angeles-based marriage and family therapist, said her athlete clients often stay away from prenups. They blame superstition, saying a prenup will mean a divorce.

“A lot of couples don’t talk about prenups until after they get married,” she said. “It can create what you don’t want to happen, which is to break up a couple.”

The key is to communicate and talk through finances before the big day, experts say. It is better to discuss as a pair how to best plan to live your lives financially - a prenup may be one way to do that.

“The biggest myth is that there is a ‘standard’ prenup,” Dylan Miles, a lawyer at Miles Family Law and Mediation in San Francisco, and co-founder of financial workshop Prenups with Heart, said in an email. “A prenup is a financial roadmap that is often very individualized.”

Provisions, especially those around children, can be added to the document, but a judge will determine if it holds in court, or if it will be thrown out, said Joslin Davis, president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. In other words, it is not binding.

“It involves a lot of thoughtful, meaningful contact - what you value and what your partner values,” Kabiri said. “It is a lot of compromise and negotiation. I can’t imagine going through that process and not learning a lot about the person you’re going to marry.”

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